Intel upgrades 32-nm SoC for smartphones

SAN JOSE, Calif. Ė Intel brings an upgraded 32-nm smartphone processor to the Mobile World Congress as the centerpiece of its effort to show progress as a mobile-processor supplier. It will also discuss Merrifield, a 22-nm follow-on planned for later this year.

Intel has made progress since it came to MWC a year ago without any Atom-based smartphone design wins. But the PC giant is still playing catch up in a segment dominated by ARM-based SoCs from Qualcomm, Nvidia and many others.

Intel's Clover Trail+, now shipping, sports three times the graphics of Intel's current Atom-based Medfield smartphone platform thanks to use of the SGX 544MP2 dual-core graphics of Imagination Technologies, the company said. The dual-core, dual-threaded Atom chip runs up to 2 GHz and can decode 1080-progressive video at 30 frames/second.

Clover Trail+ powers Lenovo's IdeaPhone K900, which will be available for sale outside China soon, an Intel spokeswoman said.

Ten phones are now shipping in 20 countries using Intelís Medfield platform, mainly in developing markets. In addition, Intel will disclose Acer, Asus and OEMs in India and Africa that are using Lexington, its smartphone platform for entry-level markets.

Intel will roll out later this year a new Atom core, expected to be its first to support out-of-order execution for enhanced performance. The core will appear in a number of 22-nm SoCs, including Merrifield for smartphones and Bay Trail, a quad-core chip for tablets.

Late last year, Intel rolled out a 1.8-GHz, dual-threaded version of Clover Trail for tablets and showed design wins with eight top OEMs, mainly using Windows 8. Intel is accelerating its work on Android for Atom for both tablets and smartphones.

The x86 giantís wireless group, formerly part of Infineon, will ship its first multimode LTE chip for voice and data before June, Intel's spokeswoman said. It is shipping a single-mode data-only device now.